UK Prime Minister David Cameron says Britain has not breached an embargo by selling military equipment to Russia, following MP demands to clarify the government’s position on UK-Russian arms deals.

The embargo was enacted “with immediate
effect” on March 18 by then-Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Heated criticism of British arms deals with Russia emerged after
a group of MPs revealed over 200 licenses allowing the sale of
British military equipment to the Russian Federation. These
revelations surfaced in a report published on Wednesday,
conducted by four separate House of Commons committees.

The Committee on Arms Export Controls’ hard-hitting review
contradicted a public statement by David Cameron on July 21. The
Prime Minister had indicated the government had enforced an
absolute arms embargo against Russia.

Speaking in the Commons on Monday, Cameron called for an outright
EU-wide ban on arms sales to Russia, claiming such an embargo was
already in place in Britain.

“Future military sales from any country in Europe should not
be going ahead,” the Prime Minister told Westminster MPs.
“We have already stopped them from Britain,” he claimed.

But the Commons committees’ report contradicted Cameron’s claims.
The review carefully scrutinized controls on Britain’s arms
exports to Russia, revealing 251 export licenses for the sale of
controlled goods to the Russia Federation worth approximately
£132m.

The report confirmed a mere 31 licenses covering UK arms sales to
Russia had been suspended or revoked, while the Russian
Federation had only been banned as a permitted export destination
in three cases since the embargo, announced by Hague, was
enacted.

According to the committees' findings Britain is selling
equipment for controlling and launching missiles, components for
military aircraft and rockets, sniper rifles, small arms
ammunition, body armor, military communications technology, night
sights for weapons and certain missiles.

Despite vehement criticism following the report, the government
insists the terms of its embargo on arms exports to Russia has
not been compromised or contravened.

“I believe that we have been consistent with the terms of the
arms embargo that we set out, which was principally aimed at
Russian armed forces and the use of goods and involvement in
Ukraine. But we’ll look very carefully at all outstanding
licenses to make sure that's the case and of course if it is not
the case then we will want to act very, very swiftly,”
Cameron said.

The Chair of the Committee on Arms Export Controls Sir John
Stanley, said the few terminated licenses reflected the
“circumscribed” terms of the embargo, which only
referenced equipment that could be used against Ukraine. Russia’s
wider defense requirements remained unaffected, he cautioned.

Sir John has
written to Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, inquiring
whether the Government had compromised or broadened their policy
of exporting arms to Russia.

“We need to know what the Government policy is. The situation
in eastern Ukraine has got worse and of course we have this
appalling tragedy of the Malaysian airliner”, he said.

Stanley concluded that a more cautious policy with respect to
UK-Russian arms deals is required.

Previously, Britain’s new Defense Secretary Michael Fallon, said
Britain does not export arms to Russia “that could be used
for internal repression.”

Fallon claimed Britain has “one of the strictest arms sales
policies in the world. We don’t sell arms to countries that might
use them internally, or might use them to cause regional
instability.”

But MPs have called for stricter controls on weapons sales to
“authoritarian regimes” - emphasizing that over 3,000
export licenses for arms deals worth £12bn have been approved for
28 states criticized by the UK's Foreign Office for their
unacceptable human rights records.